Various manufacturing, maintenance and repair jobs call for internally weighting a member. For example, in the manufacture of golf clubs, it is necessary to accurately weight each club in order to provide a matched set of clubs.
A golf club typically includes a head having a tubular section and a tubular shaft. One end of the tubular shaft is received within the tubular section of the head and suitably affixed thereto. With this construction, a cavity is defined by the internal surfaces of the tubular shaft and the tubular section of the head. In order to weight the club, it is conventional practice to place a weight into the end of the tubular shaft remote from the head and allow such weight to travel through the passage in the shaft. The weight is then secured in place at or near the bottom of the passage.
My U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,336 discloses a method of weighting articles, such as golf clubs, with a mass of permanently deformable weight composition. The weight composition, which may be in capsule form, is placed in the cavity of the golf club and compressively loaded to extrude the mass of weight composition into intimate contact with the wall of the cavity. Golf clubs inherently have a small, radially thin shoulder in the cavity and the weight capsule can be extruded into contact with the shoulder to help retain the capsule within the cavity. In addition, the weight composition has an adherent quality which tends to stick it to the wall of the cavity.
The method disclosed in my prior patent functions very satisfactorily for many applications. However, the tubular shafts are often rusty and dirty, and the weight composition must be passed through the rusty shaft into the cavity. Because the weight composition is somewhat adherent, the rust and dirt readily stick to it, and to that extent, reduce its ability to adhere to the wall of the cavity. In this event, the relatively small shoulder in the cavity may be unable to adequately retain the weight composition in position. As a consequence, the weight may rattle during use, and this may cause the golf club to be rejected or returned to the factory.